Bound by Her Destiny

by Mara Leigh

  “What?” She reaches toward me. “What’s wrong?”

  “Are you sure you want to face Xavier?” I ask.

  Her expression steels. “I’m absolutely sure. He needs to die.”

  “Wouldn’t it be better if we captured him? Handed him over to FJS?” I can’t believe the words coming out of my mouth, but Selina’s lust for revenge matches my own—and it scares me.

  She shakes her head. “If we capture Xavier, we’ll risk some of his followers trying to release him. If he’s dead they’ll no longer fear him. They’ll realize they can be free.”

  I nod. “I want him dead too.”

  “You all set?” I ask. “Should we do a dry run?”

  She reaches behind her back, and her breasts strain against the skimpy black bra we found. I cuff her, using the silver-plated cuffs I coated with a thick layer of clear glue. They sizzle against her skin. Fuck! Not enough glue. I start to take them off.

  “No,” she says. “It’s fine. I can handle the pain. It needs to look real.”

  “Okay. Let’s see you get out of them.”

  With her hands disguised by the back of the leather vest we bought, she tucks them into her leather booty shorts, and when her hands return to sight, she’s no longer bound. Instead she’s wearing leather gloves and holding the sterling silver cuffs in her hand.

  I toss her the silver rope from my jacket and she catches it with her other gloved hand, wincing as the end lashes against her bare thigh leaving a sizzling mark.

  “Can you throw the rope to me faster?” she asks. “And I just realized we need a code word. As soon as I say, Pike, you fiend! you throw me the rope. I can get the cuffs off and gloves on faster than you can throw.”

  I nod, resisting the urge to object. She’s right. Her reflexes are faster than mine. Her dexterity and speed too. And all that will take Xavier by surprise.

  As soon as she constrains Xavier, one or both of us will plunge a stake through his heart. We can’t plan every little move, but we agreed that we’d let our instincts and the situation dictate which of us gets to make the actual kill.

  I agreed, but it’s going to be me.

  She hands me the weapons, stashes the gloves in the pouch tucked into the back of her shorts under the vest. “Weapons are concealed,” she says.

  I pull her against me. “You can’t conceal your best weapons.” I cup her ass and one of her tits.

  “You dirty boy,” she teases.

  “The dirtiest.”

  We grin at each other and it instantly feels heated. My dick throbs against my pants, begging to be inside her, or even just pressing against her lush body.

  I back away from her. “Time to get moving.”

  She nods. “This is going to work. Right?”

  “Wish I knew.” I shrug, also wishing I could be more reassuring. “But we’ve got a way better chance than Astrid and her team would.”

  “Okay then,” she says. “Let’s go.”

  Chapter 23

  Selina

  “Ready?” Pike whispers in my ear.

  His hand lands on my wrist, just above the cuffs he just put on me. Even with the coating of clear glue, the silver is burning, but not so badly I can’t take the pain, and Pike’s tender touch helps.

  “All set.” I lean back into him for one last ounce of courage. As soon as we go in, he’ll have to treat me badly—as bad or worse as he used to treat me when I was Xavier’s prisoner.

  This will work. It has to work.

  Pike punches a series of eleven different concrete bricks on the wall of the abandoned subway station, doing it in what seems like a random order, but it’s not, because as soon as he finishes, a huge group of blocks slide back and to the side, revealing a dark corridor.

  He guides me through the opening, then it slides shut behind us.

  “Who the fuck is that?” A voice comes from the darkness ahead, gravelly and groggy like its owner just woke.

  “Who the fuck are you?” Pike shouts, then shoves me so hard I stumble, but he catches me by the waist, before I fall. “I’ve got a gift for the king.”

  “Pike?” A vampire pushes off the wall about twenty feet ahead of us. “Is that you?”

  “Out of my way.” Pike shoves me again and this time I stumble on purpose, putting on a show.

  “Holy fuck!” the other vampire says. “You found her? Have you been looking for her this whole time, because Xavier thinks—”

  “How dare you speak for the king!” Pike pushes me past the other vampire, and we start down stone steps that wind in a spiral and seem to descend forever. This is not the route I escaped through, but I know we’ll be going down for a long time yet.

  The guard follows. “Let me go ahead,” he calls out. “I’ll give the king the good news.”

  “If you leave your post empty,” Pike shouts, “I’ll have you flogged while you’re fucked up the ass with a silver dildo.”

  “Okay, okay.” The guard stops following us.

  So far our plan has worked even better than expected. Clearly the guard posted at the entrance still considers Pike his superior—or at least someone dangerous and not worth the risk of stopping.

  We reach the bottom of what felt like two thousand stairs, and Pike presses his lips near my ear. “Ready?”

  I nod.

  Reaching around me from behind, he picks me up, one arm between my legs from front to back, and the only way for me to avoid a face plant is to lean back into him as he carries me crudely, his wrist pressing against my clit, his fingers near my ass.

  We didn’t discuss this carry, but it’s effective. It makes me appear weak, vulnerable—not to mention sexually controllable—and it makes Pike seem cruel. Plus, it has the added benefit of keeping my back shielded so no one is likely to find the weapons stashed in the back of my shorts and under the vest.

  As he strides down the stone-lined hall, gravity bounces me on his arm with each step and arousal builds between my legs. It’s involuntary, based on the pressure, but Xavier will notice the scent and it can only help.

  We turn the corner to a wood-paneled hallway. My entire body contracts as I recognize the route leading to the dungeon room.

  I close my eyes tight and try to block all my other senses. But the sounds of vampires and humans held in the rooms, the smells of sex and blood and fear, the feel of the cool humid air on my skin, all combine to awaken buried memories I thought I’d banished, or at least neutered.

  I need to stay strong. Once I see Xavier, my thirst for revenge will overtake my fear. I have no doubt.

  We’re confronted again.

  “Pike?”

  He sets me down, but leaves his hand between my legs, stroking roughly. “Got a gift for the king. Where is he?” He tugs up so hard I rise onto my toes.

  “We thought you were dead,” the guard says.

  “Do I look dead?” Fondling between my legs with one hand, he squeezes my breast with the other, then tugs on my nipple through the thin bra, pinching so hard I cry out. My yelp is answered with an even harder pinch, and he lifts me off the ground, increasing the pressure on my sex.

  This is how I imagined sex with Pike would be—rough, cruel, punishing—and if we were alone and it was foreplay, I might actually enjoy it, but instead I’m terrified, suddenly questioning everything.

  Did Pike bring me back down here to rejoin Xavier? Was Astrid right? Has he been working for him all along? Has he been playing me? I think back to his tender lovemaking, but he tugs hard on my nipple again, and I yelp in pain.

  The guard grins. “The team who went out to find this bitch—and find you—never came back.”

  Pike keeps up the indifferent rough play with my body. “You think I care? Incompetents.” He shakes his head. “Where is the king?”

  “Meeting with the council.”

  “Perfect.” Pike lifts me again and starts walking. The guards’ ahead of us reach for stakes, but Pike doesn’t even break his stride, and the guards move to the s
ide of the corridor to let us by.

  We pass the actual room of my captivity. The door is open, the bench visible, the weapons of torture—whips, dildos, spiked paddles—on display.

  I shudder, then as if that shudder was the last gasp of hope inside my body, I freeze.

  I can’t move. I’m no longer even getting pleasure from the pressure of my lover’s hand and wrist against my sex. Instead I’m transported back in time, and my last remaining hope leaves the building.

  I’m trapped. Again. Nothing but rape and torture awaits me.

  How could I have been such a fool, actually begging to come back here. Did Pike manipulate me? Was the gentle sex, his words of love, a ploy to get me here?

  He kicks open a door and my heart clenches. All the air rushes out of my lungs.

  Xavier sits in a huge throne several feet back from the head of a massive onyx table. His chair is raised at least two feet above all of the others in the room, making him seem bigger, taller than the other massive vampires gathered.

  Two guards appear in our path, stakes raised.

  “What is the meaning of this intrusion?” Xavier asks, and I close my eyes at the sound of his voice. A voice I’ve heard threatening me as often as I’ve heard it trying to seduce me. I’m not sure which was worse.

  “Finally found the cunt.” Pike pushes past the guards.

  One of their stakes scrapes across my collarbones as we pass, then Pike sets me down on my feet in front of Xavier. His hand slides up from between my legs, but the moment of relief is short lived.

  Pike roughly plunges his thick-gloved hand down the front of my shorts, and the fly snaps open. He forces his fingers inside me. “I’ve got her ready for you, Your Majesty.”

  A cruel, lusty smile overtakes Xavier’s face. “I knew you would never betray me Pike.”

  My heart crashes against my chest, and my pulse pounds in my sex around Pike’s rough penetration, as the thick leather seams of his glove scrape inside me. My body’s involuntary reactions create lubrication, but I’m unable to trust him as my mind’s transported to the past.

  “Bitch was hiding,” Pike says. “Protected by a giant and a cunt of a vampire, but I rescued her. I brought your bride back.” Pushing his fingers deeper inside me, he spreads them so hard I rise off my feet and cry out in pain.

  My heart rate is so high, I feel like it can’t be capable of pushing around any blood. I can’t breathe. I’m going to pass out. If only I thought unconsciousness would save me from Xavier’s punishments. I know that it wouldn’t.

  “Bring her to me.” Xavier unzips his pants and pulls out his erection. “She can sit on this while we finish our meeting. Once our business is completed I’ll see she’s fucked properly. And punished for her escape.”

  Pike withdraws his hand from inside me and whispers in my ear. “Take off the cuffs. Now.”

  His voice reminds me why I’m here, what I’m supposed to do, but my body refuses to cooperate. My limbs are frozen with fear, and my lungs and heart still refuse to provide adequate oxygen. I’m dizzy. Nearly hallucinating.

  Pike pushes me forward, and I land on my knees in front of Xavier.

  “Move her cuffs to the front,” Xavier commands. “I don’t want them to burn my cock.” He shoots an evil smile toward Pike. “Silver cuffs. Nice touch.”

  One of the guards gets up to follow Xavier’s command.

  “Selina!” Pike yells. “Now!”

  I try to perform the actions that were so easy in practice. Cuffs off, gloves on, cuffs and rope—then the stake. I can remember the steps, but I can barely see, barely move.

  Can you die from a panic attack?

  “Traitor!” I hear someone shout. Then I black out.

  Chapter 24

  Gray

  Azad sits alone at a table next to the floor-to-ceiling windows of the sixty-third floor restaurant in the FJS building. He’s so still he’s like a statue set against the backdrop of the city lights. Toronto’s showstopper, the CN Tower, pierces through the landscape behind him, but it’s Azad who commands more attention. At least my attention.

  Other than us, the room is empty and quiet, our only company meticulously set tables, with crisp white linens and mahogany chairs sporting red velvet seat cushions.

  I stop a few steps in from the entrance, gathering myself together, still not entirely sure what I plan to tell him. He gave me another day, and even if I can’t find an alternative to revealing Selina’s existence, I will certainly wait until the very last moment to reveal her.

  One more night to love Selina. I shake my head. I will love her for eternity even though we’ll be apart.

  I take another step into the room.

  “You have found the king’s child,” Azad says without turning, without even moving, but his voice echoes through the cavernous space.

  He’s just hoping that’s what I’ll report, I tell myself as I approach.

  “Sit.” He gestures to the chair beside him, the first movement I’ve detected since spotting him. I swear the man doesn’t breathe.

  I sit and cross my legs, trying to relax but it’s impossible. Selina was gone when I woke, but I still feel her blood coursing inside me, still feel her body beneath mine, and while my vampiric body is physically recovered from our hours and hours of vigorous lovemaking, it’s like my muscles have the memory burned into them, a delicious, satisfied fatigue, but with energy buzzing inside.

  I’ve never felt like this. Elated, devastated. I can’t explain it.

  “Well done, Grayson.”

  “Thank you, Commander.” My heart is racing. Does he know? If so, how? Can he read minds? Has he known since the first time he saw me? Before?

  He turns toward me. “Her royal blood is inside you, I can sense its presence in your energy. The child exists and is female. You have fed from her vein.”

  I exhale, realizing I’m relieved that he’s eliminated my option to lie.

  “You know that you cannot take a Mate,” he says flatly. “Never mind her.”

  “I understand that.” Boy, do I. It’s the reason I’ve been fighting so hard against loving her. I replay the night we met. What if I’d refused to feed her that night? What if I’d taken her away and turned her over to the Order?

  No. As painful as this is, I would not trade the time we’ve spent together. Not for anything.

  “Does she know?” Azad asks.

  I nod, then straighten to face him. “She knows. She does not want to claim the throne.” Even if I can never be with her, perhaps Rock, Pike and Colton can. If she stays off the throne she can find happiness with the other three. “We should inform the council that they need to appoint another.”

  He shakes his head slowly. “It’s not so simple, young knight.”

  “But if she’s unwilling—”

  “She doesn’t yet understand.”

  “She does, I’ve told her.”

  Azad turns back to look out the window. “She must speak to the council. She must fully understand all that’s at stake. Learn the history of our species and her role in its future.”

  I shift toward him. “Commander, she can’t possibly learn all that in such a short time.”

  “The time is short, indeed.” He turns to face me. “So fortuitous that you discovered her so quickly after I arrived in town.”

  “Yes.” I fight to keep my heart rate down, praying Azad won’t sense that I’m hiding something from him. “I got lucky.”

  “Your finding her so quickly after my arrival makes me question why it took you so long to find her.” Azad rises. Standing, he’s not much taller than I am seated, yet I feel like he’s towering over me, his presence pushing me down into the chair. “It makes me wonder whether you found her long ago and have been hiding her from the Order.”

  I swallow to wet my throat. “I found her…very recently. Before you arrived, but I wasn’t positive it was her until I drank from her vein.”

  Azad’s expression remains neutral, and I try to
keep mine that way too. If he finds out the truth, that I’ve known about her for a month and didn’t report it, I’ll be tried for treason.

  “Bring her to me,” he says quietly. “You know your duty and the consequences of breaking your vows.”

  “I do. Yes. Of course.” My heart is tight, my mind racing. I need to buy some time to think this through. Give Selina and the others a chance to get away.

  “Commander, the princess has ties here. Last time we spoke, you graciously gave me two nights to find her. I ask that you give her a day to gather her things, say goodbye to those she loves here, and prepare herself for her life at court.” It’s a long shot, and I don’t even have a plan, but at least she’ll have a chance.

  Azad is silent for a very long time. So long my body begs to squirm and my lips to fill the uncomfortable silence. But silence is Azad’s tactic. He wants me to continue, to expose more information, so I keep my mouth shut through the silence, every muscle in my body taut with the effort.

  “One night,” he says finally. “I will grant her this one last night and day. You will bring her to me at the next sunset.”

  I nod, and in the time it takes for my eyes to return to where he was standing, he’s gone.

  Chapter 25

  Selina

  I wake in pain, the scent of burning flesh scalding my nostrils.

  A cry of anguish draws up my gaze from my head’s hanging position.

  Pike! His wrists and ankles are shackled with silver, and two guards are taking turns with blowtorches on his naked body.

  “Good, you’re awake my love.” Xavier lifts my face, forcing me to look up at him.

  I’m draped slightly forward, my hips against a rail, my legs spread wide and bound, my arms up to the side and bound there too, on what looks to be a pulley system attached to ceiling and floor. I have enough slack in my legs to bend my knees a few inches, but just barely, and there’s no way to draw my legs closer together or shield my exposed sex and asshole.

  “I’ve arranged things so you can watch the show while I fuck you.” He draws his finger down the side of my cheek and tips my gaze up to face Pike. “You’re even more beautiful than I remember, my love. And the timing of your visit is so convenient. The full moon is soon upon us. We can wed tomorrow night.” His eyes narrow, accompanied by the cruelest smile. “That is, if you survive my pre-wedding tests.”